Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So we went to Barcelona.
Speaker 1: We did. That's gonna come up a little bit here
Speaker 1: for a minute. We have a few episodes lined up
Speaker 1: that are inspired by that trip. One of my very
Speaker 1: favorite days from that trip is when we went to Montserrat.
Speaker 1: That name literally means serrated mountain because if you look
Speaker 1: at it, it is jagged. There are some cool pieces
Speaker 1: of lore about how like angels cut it that way,
Speaker 1: none of which we're getting into today, but I was
Speaker 1: just blown away by how absolutely beautiful it is. Both
Speaker 1: the natural elements of it, like when you're up there
Speaker 1: and you're looking out at the vista, you feel like
Speaker 1: you're on top of the world, but also the man
Speaker 1: made structures there are quite beautiful. And because it's about
Speaker 1: an hour's bus ride from where we were staying in
Speaker 1: Barcelona proper, we got a lot of history information en
Speaker 1: route from our guide, who was the wonderful Isabelle, who
Speaker 1: I absolutely adored. But there is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a language difference, and that meant that there were a
Speaker 1: few times where she said something that made me go
Speaker 1: what we Yeah, we had very similar experiences and that
Speaker 1: I was like, what are you? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: And then it made me start to think about what
Speaker 1: kind of information I would like if I could curate
Speaker 1: the story of Monserrat for a group of visitors, right,
Speaker 1: I would want stories that ranged from the earliest days
Speaker 1: of the monastery that's there to more modern times. There's
Speaker 1: even prehistory before the monastery. We can talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about that behind the scenes. But Manserrat is a
Speaker 1: really culturally important place with a lot of stories. So
Speaker 1: I was like, how how would I want to lay
Speaker 1: this out as like a terronism guide. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of what you're getting today. We're mostly focusing on three
Speaker 1: primary elements of its history, which kind of show the
Speaker 1: importance of the place as a religious center, which also
Speaker 1: includes some art history, as a military center, and finally
Speaker 1: as a place that has been home to political protest.
Speaker 1: So the earliest historical information on the site where the
Speaker 1: monastery at Manserrat would eventually be built is of course sparse,
Speaker 1: and it all starts at least in terms of the
Speaker 1: inspiration for the monastery with a kind of mythic story
Speaker 1: about a sculpture being found, and according to that legend,
Speaker 1: in the year eight eighty, several shepherds who were children
Speaker 1: saw a light and heard music coming out of a
Speaker 1: cave on the mountain one night. So when they went
Speaker 1: to this cave, they found a sculpture of the Virgin Mary.
Speaker 1: This sculpture was surrounded by angels who were playing music.
Speaker 1: So the children went and reported this to local adults,
Speaker 1: and as a result, the bishop came to see the
Speaker 1: sculpture for himself. He was so taken with it that
Speaker 1: he wanted to move it to an existing cathedral. But
Speaker 1: the story goes that as the madonna was being carried
Speaker 1: down the mountain, she got heavier and heavier, and they
Speaker 1: interpreted this as a sign that the statue wanted to
Speaker 1: stay there on Manserrat, and so that was where a
Speaker 1: monastery or any other religious buildings would have to be built.
Speaker 1: Where this sculpture came from is unknown. The lore puts
Speaker 1: its origin at the time of Jesus, and that it
Speaker 1: was a request of Jesus to Saint Luke to have
Speaker 1: an image of his mother Mary carved from wood. In
Speaker 1: some tellings of this story. The carpentry tools which had
Speaker 1: belonged to Jesus were used by Luke to create this
Speaker 1: wooden portrait of Mary, and according to legend, this piece
Speaker 1: of artwork arrived in Barcelona via Saint Paul, who gave
Speaker 1: it as a gift to the Christians living in the area.
Speaker 1: So that of course leads to the question how did
Speaker 1: this statue get to a cave on Maserat? But one
Speaker 1: popular theory is that when the Moors attacked Barcelona in
Speaker 1: seven eighteen, the sculpture was hidden in the cave for
Speaker 1: safety and then stayed there for the next one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty years because over time the secret hiding place
Speaker 1: was forgotten. Basically, everyone who knew where it was eventually died.
Speaker 1: And within a decade of this find, which believers consider
Speaker 1: to have been a miracle, there was a chapel built
Speaker 1: outside of the Santa Kova, which is the name for
Speaker 1: the cave that the statue was found in that translates
Speaker 1: to Holy Cave. That chapel location can still be seen,
Speaker 1: but you have to hike a little way away from
Speaker 1: the monastery to see it. By the end of the
Speaker 1: ninth century, there were several more chapels. In ten twenty five,
Speaker 1: abbott Oliva of Ripley officially founded the Monsarrat Monastery, and
Speaker 1: for several hundred years the monastery at Monsarrat was under
Speaker 1: the control of this monastery at Ripley. It didn't become
Speaker 1: completely independent from that organization until fourteen thirty one, under
Speaker 1: an act of Pope Eugene the Fourth. There is this
Speaker 1: really significant moment that happens in the late eleven hundreds,
Speaker 1: the statue was replaced with a new one. But even
Speaker 1: this is something that's a little confusing because it's not
Speaker 1: often mentioned in various accounts of the statue at the monastery,
Speaker 1: although the abbey's official website does mention it in their
Speaker 1: historic timeline, noting that this twelfth century statue is one
Speaker 1: of the jewels of the collection, and even today when
Speaker 1: you read short write ups, this statue is still talked
Speaker 1: about as though it's possibly something that was made by
Speaker 1: Saint Luke. The statue, which is currently on display, is
Speaker 1: very much in line with the art style of the
Speaker 1: twelfth century. The seated figure of the madonna is elongated,
Speaker 1: like her features are elongated. Although it is not an
Speaker 1: especially large piece, it's thirty eight inches tall, so about
Speaker 1: a meter tall. The infant Jesus is in her lap,
Speaker 1: and she holds an orb in one hand. That orb
Speaker 1: is actually a thing you can touch. The way she's displayed,
Speaker 1: there's like a glass case protecting her, but that one
Speaker 1: hand holding the orb protrudes from it and people touch
Speaker 1: it as part of their prayers. That switcheroo aside, maybe
Speaker 1: the most fascinating aspect of this depiction of Mary is
Speaker 1: that she's dark skinned, so she's grouped under the umbrella
Speaker 1: of depictions known as black Madonna's like that name suggests,
Speaker 1: these are images of the Madonna that have brown or
Speaker 1: otherwise very dark skin. The Mansarat sculpture is called La morinetta,
Speaker 1: which translates from Catalan literally to meaning brunette or brown.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of religious and art history writing
Speaker 1: about black madonnas because there are a lot of them,
Speaker 1: and there are lots of varying theories about why they
Speaker 1: exist and what, if anything, that coloration means. To be clear,
Speaker 1: this is referring to madonnas that are found primarily in
Speaker 1: like predominantly white European countries, not madonnas that are made
Speaker 1: in regions where a darker skin tone is like more
Speaker 1: common among the general public, so it does raise some questions.
Speaker 1: One theory is that these images were made with darker
Speaker 1: skin tones in an effort to kind of marry pagan
Speaker 1: and Christian imagery. That is just one possible explanation. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about others in just a moment. I will say that,
Speaker 1: like a lot of these depictions, their skin is a
Speaker 1: lot darker than like the rest of the sculpture. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well so darker than the rest of the sculpture, and
Speaker 1: like darker than like the olive toned skin that like
Speaker 1: a lot of scholars believe that like the historical Jesus
Speaker 1: probably had right right, they are like dark, dark brown,
Speaker 1: and sometimes literally like the color of coal. Right. There
Speaker 1: is also a commonality among the various black madonnas in
Speaker 1: that most of them, by which we mean the sculptures
Speaker 1: or paintings, are associated with miracles, which has led to
Speaker 1: a common belief that a black madonna is especially sacred.
Speaker 1: This is also linked by some to the verse in
Speaker 1: the Song of Solomon in the Bible, which reads, I
Speaker 1: am black but comely, or in some editions, I am
Speaker 1: black but beautiful. That verse, which of course includes a
Speaker 1: lot more. Text is often examined as a study of
Speaker 1: race within Christianity, but as it pertains to Madonna's there
Speaker 1: are theories that some of them may have been painted
Speaker 1: with dark skin to invoke that verse, and there is
Speaker 1: even a possibility that a trend may have started after
Speaker 1: some representations of Mary were made with this darkened skin
Speaker 1: tone or became darkened, and that then others followed suit.
Speaker 1: In the case of the Madonna of Monserrat, it appears
Speaker 1: that she wasn't actually created with dark skin, but that
Speaker 1: her skin on this sculpture darkened over time, and she's
Speaker 1: not the old only black Madonna that appears to have
Speaker 1: gone through this sort of shift. There are a few
Speaker 1: different possible reasons for this. One cause is that some
Speaker 1: of them have just been discolored by their surroundings, particularly
Speaker 1: things like candles, which can deposit a fine soot residue
Speaker 1: onto surfaces. Another, which was mentioned as early as eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight by French architect Charles Ruhal de Fleury, is
Speaker 1: that works might have had silver plating, and that silver
Speaker 1: plating blackened over time, and then he suggested that that
Speaker 1: look was copied by subsequent artists In the early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: Stephen Bissel, a Jesuit scholar, noted that a lot of
Speaker 1: skin tone paint included vermilion or red lead, and both
Speaker 1: of those can blacken over time. In a paper for
Speaker 1: the American Historical Review in two thousand and two, anthropologist
Speaker 1: Monique Scher, who includes all of these explanations and authors,
Speaker 1: notes quote Although the novelty of a black madonna seems
Speaker 1: to be a source of pride for local pilgrimage centers,
Speaker 1: today among most scholars the phenomenon has been deemed rather uninteresting,
Speaker 1: as it is customarily considered to be nothing but darkening
Speaker 1: by candles and age, and thus not warranting greater investigation
Speaker 1: or elaboration. I will confess when we got kind of
Speaker 1: the weird she's black, but they think it's from candles,
Speaker 1: I was like, what that doesn't make sense. But reading
Speaker 1: all of the art history discussions of what may have
Speaker 1: gone on, I'm like, ah, now I understand. I had
Speaker 1: a very similar response to like a different part of
Speaker 1: that same explanation that she gave to us, which is
Speaker 1: like she was like she might have been white and
Speaker 1: she might have turned black, And I was like, what
Speaker 1: are what do you say right. The Madonna of Montserrat,
Speaker 1: which is a wooden sculpture as we said, was examined
Speaker 1: by conservators in the early two thousands to determine what
Speaker 1: the true nature of her pigment was, and using X
Speaker 1: rays and other tests methods, researchers concluded that she had
Speaker 1: originally been depicted with light color skin, but that either
Speaker 1: candle smoke or a varnish reaction on the skin tone
Speaker 1: areas of her sculpture caused this thing to turn black.
Speaker 1: She was then, though repainted black during restoration efforts over
Speaker 1: the years by conservators who may have believed the original
Speaker 1: color was black. The most recent black repaint that they
Speaker 1: were able to conclusively identify was done in the early
Speaker 1: eighteenth century. By the twelve twenties, pilgrims started to make
Speaker 1: their way to the monastery to visit the Virgin of Monserrat.
Speaker 1: By the mid twelve twenties, the monastery had a boy's choir,
Speaker 1: which it still has, and official recognition of the Brotherhood
Speaker 1: of the Mother of God of Monserrat. Also in the
Speaker 1: early thirteenth century, Alfonso, the tenth King of Castile Leon Englecia,
Speaker 1: who was known as Alfonso the Wise published a book
Speaker 1: of songs, Canticles of Holy Mary. These are not all
Speaker 1: songs he wrote, although he may have written some of them.
Speaker 1: It's believed that musicians of his court created most of
Speaker 1: the songs, and the songs tell the story of the
Speaker 1: monserrat Virgin Mary. They attribute multiple miracles to her. In one,
Speaker 1: a man who put a ring on the statue's finger
Speaker 1: is then visited by the madonna in his sleep. After
Speaker 1: he gets married, she tells him that he cannot marry
Speaker 1: because he had already pledged himself to her. According to
Speaker 1: the song, that man left his wife to become a monk.
Speaker 1: Other stories told through the canticles include the madonna bringing
Speaker 1: a woman's beloved son back from the dead, and there's
Speaker 1: even one in which a man is struck dead after
Speaker 1: painting the madonna white. That's a particularly interesting one because
Speaker 1: it indicates the statue had already blackened by the thirteenth century.
Speaker 1: This collection of songs helped spread the story of the
Speaker 1: statue and its finding, which was considered a miracle, as
Speaker 1: well as other miracles attributed to it, and it drew
Speaker 1: more people to the site. The monastery continued to grow
Speaker 1: throughout the following decades, and it had a steady stream
Speaker 1: of pilgrims who visited to see the Madonna. In the
Speaker 1: fourteen nineties, the monastery got a printing press. It was
Speaker 1: one of the first in Spain, and that makes Monsarrat
Speaker 1: now home to one of the oldest publishing houses in
Speaker 1: the world. It is still going more than five hundred
Speaker 1: years later, although there have been interruptions due to various conflicts.
Speaker 1: This area has had a lot of conflict. Yes, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about some more of them in a
Speaker 1: subsequent episode Bonus Story. Also in the fourteen nineties, the
Speaker 1: monastery at Monsarrat was invoked in the naming of an island.
Speaker 1: Just in case at the beginning of the episode you
Speaker 1: weren't clear on whether we were talking about the mountain
Speaker 1: or the island, the two do have a common tie
Speaker 1: between them. The island was named Santa Maria de Monserrat
Speaker 1: in honor of the Virgin Mary. At Monsarrat, there was
Speaker 1: a monk from Monsarrat with Columbus on his second Transatlantic
Speaker 1: voyage in fourteen ninety three. His name was Bernardo Buil.
Speaker 1: While the Caribbean island was inhabited around three thousand BCE,
Speaker 1: possibly by a pre Arwak people, and then by the
Speaker 1: carib people. After that. When Columbus got there, no one
Speaker 1: was living there, so it was colonized almost one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty years later and used for plantations. This island
Speaker 1: passed between Britain and France until the Treaty of Paris
Speaker 1: and seventeen eighty three once again made it British territory,
Speaker 1: and it's remained British territory ever since. The island of
Speaker 1: Monsarrat has its own lengthy and complicated history of slavery
Speaker 1: and government unrests and even volcanic activity, way beyond the
Speaker 1: scope of this episode, which is about a different place. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just thought we would pop that in in case
Speaker 1: you're like, wait, but why does the island have the
Speaker 1: same name. Coming up, we're going to talk about Napoleon's
Speaker 1: role in the hisay of Monsarrat, but first we will
Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. One of the most significant
Speaker 1: events for Monsarrat was the destruction of the entire facility
Speaker 1: in the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon invaded Spain in eighteen oh eight,
Speaker 1: and if you look at Monsarrat on a map, it
Speaker 1: sits to the northwest of Barcelona, so it was right
Speaker 1: in between the French border and the city of Barcelona,
Speaker 1: which as a religious center made it vulnerable to an
Speaker 1: advancing army, and as a military location, made it important
Speaker 1: as a strategic location for both the Spanish and French armies.
Speaker 1: So because of this, the Spanish army moved into the
Speaker 1: monastery and the monks left. Most of them went to
Speaker 1: the island of Majorca, taking a lot of the monastery's
Speaker 1: valuables as well as art, in the hopes of keeping
Speaker 1: those things safe. Although Spanish forces held the mountain and
Speaker 1: use it is a central location to send arms and
Speaker 1: information to the surrounding military units, Napoleon's troops boldly moved
Speaker 1: to try to take it for themselves. There's an interesting
Speaker 1: piece of lore attached to the first battle at Monserrat
Speaker 1: between France and Spain. The French military was powerful. It
Speaker 1: managed to set the monastery on fire, but then they
Speaker 1: heard what sounded like a massive Spanish army marching on them,
Speaker 1: and they retreated. Those huge troop numbers were an illusion,
Speaker 1: though The noise was attributed to the drum of a
Speaker 1: single boy whose drum beats echoed so loudly off the
Speaker 1: mountains that it created the sound of just a huge
Speaker 1: throng of marching troops. Sometimes this story is told as
Speaker 1: though the drumming was part of an organized effort on
Speaker 1: the part of the Spanish forces, and other times it
Speaker 1: sounds more like just a lucky accident. The name Isidra
Speaker 1: Juke Casanovas is often given as that of the drummer,
Speaker 1: and there's a mania meant to him in Elbrook, which
Speaker 1: that's just to the east of Monsarrat. That's where he
Speaker 1: is said to have been drumming. And the early fighting
Speaker 1: at Monsarrat in eighteen oh eight, the French lost more
Speaker 1: than four hundred men. Yeah, it's very interesting how differently
Speaker 1: that story gets told. In one, it's like the people
Speaker 1: of Elbruk are trying to take up arms and help
Speaker 1: in the effort, and they tell him he can't help
Speaker 1: in any way, and so he gets his drum and
Speaker 1: it's very heartwarming and inspiring story. And in others it's like, no,
Speaker 1: they literally plan this out. Oh so, so just if
Speaker 1: you read it, it may come out different depending on
Speaker 1: your source. But the Napoleonic Wars, of course continued for
Speaker 1: years beyond that early victory for Spain and overall, Napoleon
Speaker 1: was quite successful in his campaign to capture Spain. In Catalonia,
Speaker 1: Montserrat was one of the holdouts, and then in eighteen eleven,
Speaker 1: General Louis Gabriel Cuchet took ten thousand French troops and
Speaker 1: positioned them all around the monastery for a coordinated attack
Speaker 1: from all sides. This operation on the part of the
Speaker 1: French took the Spanish forces at Monsarrat by surprise, and
Speaker 1: France killed hundreds of Spanish soldiers and at that point
Speaker 1: the monastery was burned down. The site remained empty for years,
Speaker 1: during which time Spain enacted land acts which divested the
Speaker 1: monks of the property on Monsarrat, But in eighteen forty
Speaker 1: four monks returned and in the decades that followed the
Speaker 1: monastery was rebuilt. In eighteen eighty one, the Virgin of
Speaker 1: Monsarrat was declared a patron saint of Catalognia. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: is not the only one, but she is one of them.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, Monsarrat opened its museum, then the Biblical
Speaker 1: Museum of Monsarrat. During the tumultuous times, the monastery had
Speaker 1: experienced Before this, it had lost almost all of its
Speaker 1: heritage objects. So a Benedictine monk and scholar from the abbey,
Speaker 1: father Bonaventuro Ubach, had traveled to various sites in Northern
Speaker 1: Africa and the Middle East to create a new collection
Speaker 1: for this museum. More than sixty years later, in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty three, the museum expanded and evolved to become Musea
Speaker 1: de Montsarat. This new museum included archaeological items that the
Speaker 1: monastery had acquired, and it also transitioned a lot of
Speaker 1: the art that had been displayed or stored in the
Speaker 1: monastery into the museum setting. This included a lot of
Speaker 1: Baroque and Renaissance art that had been collected over the decades.
Speaker 1: And then the museum received a large donation from the
Speaker 1: collection of Catalan art collector Joseph Salardies when he died.
Speaker 1: Salardis had lived to be one hundred and five and
Speaker 1: throughout his life he had acquired art, so his collection
Speaker 1: was very impressive. Some of the most impressive pieces in
Speaker 1: the collection of the Museum of Montserrat today are from
Speaker 1: this bequeathment, including works by Picasso, Fortuny and Johnsinger Sergeant.
Speaker 1: The collection has continued to grow as other estates have
Speaker 1: bequeathed collections, and it operates through donations. This year we're
Speaker 1: recording twenty twenty three, the museum added a really interesting
Speaker 1: exhibit which shows off the excavated walls of the oldest
Speaker 1: buildings of Monsarrat. They are reconstructed on an upper gallery floor,
Speaker 1: so you can walk through the space in the same
Speaker 1: configuration that it was originally built in. This exhibit is
Speaker 1: starkly lit. It's incredibly striking. Did you go there? I did?
Speaker 1: I did not? I did, And it's it's a little
Speaker 1: bit strange just in terms of like the feeling it
Speaker 1: evokes when you walk in, because you're up there looking
Speaker 1: through their art galleries, which again they have what I
Speaker 1: can only describe as a banging art collection, Like they
Speaker 1: have some jewels in there that I never realized were
Speaker 1: there at Monsarrat. And you kind of seen this door
Speaker 1: open and you see like stone walls, and not knowing
Speaker 1: what it was, I was like, what on earth is
Speaker 1: in there? And I went in and started walking around,
Speaker 1: and a couple of other people from our tour group
Speaker 1: had gone in also, and a couple of people were like,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit spooky up here because it is
Speaker 1: there's nothing else in there except these walls, and like
Speaker 1: the lighting is very very dramatic. And then as you're
Speaker 1: reading that this is what they had excavated during one
Speaker 1: of their building periods, it's really interesting and it's just
Speaker 1: by itself. There's no other stuff, right, and so I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's a really really beautiful thing that entire
Speaker 1: museum kind of blew me away. I am in love
Speaker 1: with it. So it's on my list to go back to.
Speaker 1: So we are jumping ahead a little bit here. Yes,
Speaker 1: we are jumping past the Spanish Civil War, but I
Speaker 1: promise you're going to get some in upcoming episodes because
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a more recent event. But
Speaker 1: to talk about this event, which was a protest that
Speaker 1: happened at the monastery in nineteen seventy, we first have
Speaker 1: to talk about the Basques and an extremist group that
Speaker 1: grew out of the Basque desire for self governance. So,
Speaker 1: just as an expectations management here, this is a high
Speaker 1: level look at these ideological struggles, and we obviously cannot
Speaker 1: condense decades and even centuries in some cases of nuanced
Speaker 1: conflict down to a few paragraphs and capture everything. So
Speaker 1: please know that your understanding after you hear all this
Speaker 1: will be very basic. It's a very high level overview.
Speaker 1: So the Basque people are defined as an ethnic group
Speaker 1: originating in the western Pyrenees, on the Bay of Biscay,
Speaker 1: so the northern shore of Spain and into France, and
Speaker 1: for quite a while the Basque area, like Catalounia, has
Speaker 1: been involved in a dispute with Spain over its status
Speaker 1: as part of that country, with the issue of autonomy
Speaker 1: at the core of that. In eighteen ninety four, the
Speaker 1: Partido Nationalist of Osco, or the Basque Nationalist Party was formed,
Speaker 1: and it persisted in secret all through the Franco regime,
Speaker 1: but it had its own internal struggles. In the mid
Speaker 1: twentieth century, the Basque Nationalist Party fractured, with a breakaway
Speaker 1: group forming these Scottita Askatasuna that's the Basque Homeland and
Speaker 1: Liberty Party that's also known as the ETA. And a
Speaker 1: big reason for this fracture was that while most members
Speaker 1: of the Basque Nationalist Party wanted to continue to pursue
Speaker 1: their political goals peacefully as sort of a moderate Party,
Speaker 1: a smaller group felt like it was time to take
Speaker 1: up arms and physically fight for self determination. That fracture
Speaker 1: was catalyzed when Franco's regime, in an effort to quell
Speaker 1: Basque unrest, banned the Basque language and conducted a cultural
Speaker 1: genocide against the Basques. That smaller group that wanted more
Speaker 1: direct action formed the ETA, and even within the ETA,
Speaker 1: there were disparate factions with separate goals. So one branch
Speaker 1: in the ETA, the Nationalists, wanted Basque autonomy, essentially in
Speaker 1: the same way the Nationalist Party had, But another faction,
Speaker 1: which is sometimes called the ETA VII, made up of
Speaker 1: younger members, wanted to pursue a more Marxist approach to
Speaker 1: government than their ETA fellows, and they were also much
Speaker 1: more willing to take extreme measures to reach that goal.
Speaker 1: So the ETA became the target of the Franco regime.
Speaker 1: And while there were absolutely members of the ETA committing
Speaker 1: violent and terrorist acts, you will sometimes see it called
Speaker 1: a terrorist organization. The Spanish government would also just arrest
Speaker 1: people on even a whiff of suspicion that they had
Speaker 1: connection to or involvement in the ETA, and once detained
Speaker 1: that those people were treated terribly. They were beaten and tortured.
Speaker 1: Whether there was evidence of that connection or not. The
Speaker 1: ATA engaged in various illegal and violent activities, including robbing
Speaker 1: banks to maintain their financing. But in nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: there were two murders that resulted in a massive effort
Speaker 1: on the part of the Franco led government to just
Speaker 1: shut the ETA down completely. The first murder victim was
Speaker 1: Jose Pardoner, who was a Spanish Civil Guard officer that's
Speaker 1: one of the country's national police forces, and he was
Speaker 1: shot on on June seventh, nineteen sixty eight, when he
Speaker 1: pulled over two of the founders of the etaight sabi
Speaker 1: Is Barrieta and Enachi Sarascietta, at a traffic stop. These
Speaker 1: two men fled the scene and they were stopped a
Speaker 1: second time, and during that second stop, Asbarrieta was killed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for clarity, we did not get good pronunciation examples for
Speaker 1: those name, so apologies if you know them and they
Speaker 1: sound terrible, that is not Tracy's fault. I couldn't find
Speaker 1: a guide. The second murder victim was Militon Manzanes, who
Speaker 1: was an officer in the Spanish Secret Police, and he
Speaker 1: was killed outside his home on August second. This is
Speaker 1: characterized as retaliation for the death of extra Barrieta, but
Speaker 1: Manzanas also had a reputation as an incredibly brutal man
Speaker 1: who ordered arrests and tortures of Basque citizens. These two
Speaker 1: murders led to a massive effort on the part of
Speaker 1: the Spanish government to bring the responsible parties to justice,
Speaker 1: and ultimately sixteen Basques were brought in on accusations that
Speaker 1: they had participated in or aided in the murders. In
Speaker 1: a moment, we'll talk about how these legal proceedings played
Speaker 1: out and how Monsarrat came into the picture. But first
Speaker 1: you'll hear from the sponsors that keep Stepfimus in history
Speaker 1: class going. The trials which resulted from the arrests made
Speaker 1: after those two nineteen sixty eight murders was carried out
Speaker 1: in the city of Burgos. They are sometimes called the
Speaker 1: Burgos Show trials. One man, Francisco Isco, was accused of
Speaker 1: shooting Manzanas, and the other fifteen defendants were brought up
Speaker 1: on a variety of charges. Five of them, in addition
Speaker 1: to Isko, were accused of planning the murder of Manzanas,
Speaker 1: and the death penalty was sought for them. The others
Speaker 1: had all been accused of different crimes in service of
Speaker 1: the ETA, including things like robbery, bombings, and distribution of
Speaker 1: pro Basque and anti fas Franco materials. One woman, Maria Arenzazu,
Speaker 1: had no specific charges against her. These trials were actually
Speaker 1: courts martial, even though the defendants were not military personnel.
Speaker 1: This was a practice under Franco in which trials happened
Speaker 1: very quickly and sentencing was harsh, and the press was invited.
Speaker 1: A Spanish government seemed to believe that media coverage would
Speaker 1: show how quickly and forcefully terrorism was being dealt with,
Speaker 1: but it really had the opposite effect. While many of
Speaker 1: the reporters who witnessed the trials were from Spanish papers
Speaker 1: that supported Franco, there were also international journalists there who
Speaker 1: saw these proceedings as extreme and in violation of human rights.
Speaker 1: The prosecution's case had one big problem. There were confessions
Speaker 1: from some of these people to the murder of Manzanas,
Speaker 1: but all of those confessions had been given during torture,
Speaker 1: with no additional evidence in place. There was conflict in
Speaker 1: the courtroom throughout these trials, which ran from December third
Speaker 1: to December ninth, nineteen seventy, and even before the trial started,
Speaker 1: members of the ETA kidnapped West German Consul Eugen Biel.
Speaker 1: Although leaders within the ETA initially claimed that their organization
Speaker 1: had no involvement, this entire scenario was contentious and because
Speaker 1: of the murky information that was presented to prosecute the defendants,
Speaker 1: public opinion landed not really with the Franco regime, but
Speaker 1: with the Basques who were on trial. If you're wondering
Speaker 1: why that kidnapping didn't turn public opinion against the defendants,
Speaker 1: the Guardian explained it as being more about the ongoing
Speaker 1: problems with Franco in its reporting at the time, quote
Speaker 1: the issues of Basque nationalism as such are only an
Speaker 1: occasion for deeper protest at the depressed state of Spain
Speaker 1: thirty years after General Franco's crusade. This is one reason
Speaker 1: why the kidnapping of the West German Consul, deplorable as
Speaker 1: it is, has not undermined the anti Franco movement. The
Speaker 1: kidnapping was a blunder and has rightly been condemned by
Speaker 1: most of the movement. Even before this trial started, members
Speaker 1: of the Catholic Church had publicly stated that the death
Speaker 1: penalty should not be pursued. Many of the defendants used
Speaker 1: their time on the stand to shine a light on
Speaker 1: police brutality. Jizeus Abriscatta very plainly stated the reason he
Speaker 1: was part of the ETA in his examination, which was
Speaker 1: printed in the New York Times. He told the court
Speaker 1: that he joined the ETA when he first became aware
Speaker 1: of social oppression. He then described his arrest in his
Speaker 1: apartment along with his two friends, and how one of
Speaker 1: the men was abused and questioned there in the apartment
Speaker 1: after he had been shot in the chest by police
Speaker 1: and was begging for a doctor. He described extreme torture
Speaker 1: at the hands of police once they were brought to
Speaker 1: a station and booked as well. His descriptions were so
Speaker 1: graphic that the judge was like, let's move on. The
Speaker 1: cases concluded on December ninth, and then the weight began
Speaker 1: for the judges. There were seven to issue their verdicts.
Speaker 1: I also saw this reported once as having five judges.
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to conclusively see like a list of
Speaker 1: them to know which is the case, But there were
Speaker 1: multiple judges in this In these courts martial here's how
Speaker 1: all this relates to the monastery at Monserrat. While the
Speaker 1: world waited to learn the fates of the defendants, three
Speaker 1: hundred of Catalonia's prominent intellectuals staged a sit in at
Speaker 1: the monastery to protest the trials. This was done with
Speaker 1: the support of the Abbot. This protests started on the
Speaker 1: afternoon of Saturday, December twelfth, and by Sunday police had
Speaker 1: blocked all the roadways leading to the monastery and were
Speaker 1: patrolling the area. This was to be clear and illegal
Speaker 1: sit in, though the Abbot had approved it. Spanish law
Speaker 1: at the time forbid assemblies of more than twenty people
Speaker 1: without a government permit, and it speaks to the importance
Speaker 1: of the Monsarrat Monastery and its association with peace. It
Speaker 1: was a place that protesters were fairly confident and no
Speaker 1: one would barge in because it is considered such a
Speaker 1: sacred and important place, and the monastery was itself a
Speaker 1: place of protest in its own right. By this point,
Speaker 1: when the Catalan language had been banned in Spain, sermons
Speaker 1: continued to be delivered there in Catalan, and while the
Speaker 1: police sealed off the monastery so no one could go in,
Speaker 1: or out, even the monks. They did not actively interfere
Speaker 1: with the protesters, but they did, according to reports, shut
Speaker 1: down the telephone lines to the facility. That lockdown also
Speaker 1: meant that things like food and other supplies could not
Speaker 1: go in. This was not the only protest in Spain.
Speaker 1: While people waited to hear the verdict, there were so
Speaker 1: many that Franco ordered unlimited arrests throughout the country and
Speaker 1: expectation of the reaction once the verdict was issued. That
Speaker 1: meant they could arrest and hold anyone for up to
Speaker 1: six months and withhold any legal rights. This was a
Speaker 1: suspension of a provision within the country's constitution that gave
Speaker 1: citizens legal rights even outside of Franco's jurisdiction. In other countries,
Speaker 1: protests were staged that were openly critical of Franco. According
Speaker 1: to newspapers reports at a protest in Amsterdam, signs carried
Speaker 1: by protesters read quote Spain the tourists Mecca, but Liberty's
Speaker 1: tomb for the monsarrat protesters. Things ended peacefully. This, once
Speaker 1: again evidence is the high regard that the monastery was
Speaker 1: and is held in. Unlike other places throughout Catalogna and Spain,
Speaker 1: there were no arrests of protesters, and the protests only
Speaker 1: lasted a couple of days. The protesters became kind of
Speaker 1: concerned that the Franco government might do something to the monastery,
Speaker 1: so they negotiated that they would leave peacefully if their
Speaker 1: names were not recorded and no arrests were made. That
Speaker 1: was agreed to, but before vacating, they wrote and published
Speaker 1: a manifesto which included the following passage damning the Franco
Speaker 1: regime quote, the rights of the peace and nations which
Speaker 1: form the Spanish state are suppressed by an artificial national unity,
Speaker 1: and the present political and judicial system makes crimes of
Speaker 1: actions which in democracy are considered fundamental civil rights. On
Speaker 1: Christmas Day, a week after the Mansarat sident ended, Consul
Speaker 1: Eugenbiel was released by the ETA. The verdicts were released
Speaker 1: three days later. They acquitted one defendant, sentenced six to death,
Speaker 1: and then doled out a combined five hundred years of
Speaker 1: prison time to the rest of them. The whole thing
Speaker 1: was a media nightmare for Franco, and two days after
Speaker 1: the decisions he commuted the death sentences to life in prison.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven, two years after Franco's death, Spain's
Speaker 1: new amnesty law led to the release of all fifteen
Speaker 1: people who had been sentenced at these trials. The ETA
Speaker 1: continued to exist until it was disbanded in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: And those are a handful of events that happened in
Speaker 1: Montsarat that to me give you a bigger overview of
Speaker 1: what its importance is in Spanish and Catalonian history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and hopefully we didn't bungle any of those details because
Speaker 1: some of these things are going through translators. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say we have another a Barcelona trip related episode
Speaker 1: coming up in the near future. And I had some
Speaker 1: similar struggles. Dim I get, Am I understanding this correctly?
Speaker 1: I hope? I hope. Fingers crossed, Fingers crossed? Do you
Speaker 1: have some listener mail? Yes, I'm still going to talk
Speaker 1: about Jack Landards. Look, I know we're into wintertime and
Speaker 1: there are other things going on. We're not quite in
Speaker 1: winter officially, but you know, we're into the winter holiday season,
Speaker 1: but it's always Halloween at my house. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to read this email from our listener, Carolyn, who writes HI,
Speaker 1: longtime listener, first time writer. While listening to your Jack
Speaker 1: o Lantern episode, I was reminded of the following story
Speaker 1: Worry About nine years after moving to London from the Midwest.
Speaker 1: I was talking to my coworkers about how excited I
Speaker 1: was to carve pumpkins with my toddler age son for
Speaker 1: the first time, and I was shocked to be met
Speaker 1: with blank stares from my coworkers. Halloween wasn't as big
Speaker 1: a deal in the UK in two thousand and five
Speaker 1: when we moved, but it had steadily been gaining a popularity,
Speaker 1: so I erroneously assumed my younger colleagues would be totally
Speaker 1: on board with this whole concept, but nope, they all
Speaker 1: thought I was crazy. Luckily, our neighborhood was much more
Speaker 1: Halloween friendly and our carved pumpkins were very warmly received.
Speaker 1: We live in Luxembourg now and there are enough expats
Speaker 1: here to provide a suitably Halloween atmosphere if you know
Speaker 1: which neighborhood to hit. It's also a tradition here to
Speaker 1: celebrate trolikt at the same time of year by carving
Speaker 1: spooky faces into turnips and beats and lighting candles and
Speaker 1: windows to protect yourself from the souls of the dead.
Speaker 1: She includes a link about Halloween in Luxembourg and says
Speaker 1: thanks for your hard work putting out such a great podcast.
Speaker 1: As Tax attached a photo of my son as a
Speaker 1: vampire squid from Halloween twenty eighteen and my cat Sophia
Speaker 1: Castrillo and Flavia Edith Beans. Sophia is the void and
Speaker 1: Flavia is the fluf and they are a bossy pair
Speaker 1: of con artists who claim they have never been fed.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there might be like a little
Speaker 1: secret school of cats where they teach each other how
Speaker 1: to look pathetic and like they've never been taken care
Speaker 1: of or eaten in their entire lives. Yeah, I am
Speaker 1: continually thankful that our cats are not like that about
Speaker 1: their meals, although they are like that about treats. We
Speaker 1: have a mixed bag since you have multiple cats. One
Speaker 1: of our cats will literally like look up from the
Speaker 1: bowl he's in if one of the other of us
Speaker 1: that did not feed him comes in the room and
Speaker 1: act like they were left out of the feeding proceedings,
Speaker 1: even when you can point and go, your food is
Speaker 1: right there, my dude. So he took the advanced level
Speaker 1: classes clearly. In any case, Thank you so much, Carolyn
Speaker 1: for sharing that story with us, It's always interesting to me.
Speaker 1: I have had other friends who have gone abroad, and
Speaker 1: their stories similarly of how they're like, it's Halloween and
Speaker 1: they kind of get blank stares always tickle me a
Speaker 1: little bit. Since it has become such a huge deal
Speaker 1: here and certainly it's a huge deal in my life.
Speaker 1: But if you would like to write to us and
Speaker 1: tell us your stories of holidays that don't go quite
Speaker 1: the same wherever you're at as to the way you
Speaker 1: grew up, you can do that at History Podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us on social
Speaker 1: media as Missed in History, and if you haven't subscribed
Speaker 1: and would like to, you can do that on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.